Family Ties One-shots, Dribs, and Drabbles
by penguino3782
Summary: A collection of one-shots, dribs, and drabbles that takes place in the "Family Ties" verse.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Animal Kingdom.**

**A/N: This is going to be a collection of short, kinda random one-shots, dribs, and drabbles that takes place in the "Family Ties" verse. First up, a re-do scene that takes place in season three's episode "The Killing." After being shot, Baz is clinging to life. J goes to pick Lena up from school.**

The vibration of his feet hitting the pavement fills J's ears as he runs along the Strand. He feels good. Like he can breathe in and not feel like his lungs are closing up. It's a rare and welcomed feeling. Smurf is in jail. He's back with Nicky. Lena's last check up went well. No signs of the aplastic anemia Things are decent with him and Baz. He hasn't had a nightmare in nearly a month. Things are good.

"Get in!" J turns towards the source of the voice to see a truck has pulled up alongside him, Pope's in the front and Nicky is in the back. Shit and there's go that good feeling.

"What? Why?"

"Baz has been shot," Pope answers as he gets into the car.

"What happened?" J asks as he puts on his seat belt.

"I don't know," Pope says, his knuckles white as they grip the steering wheel. "All I know is that after I dropped off Lena at school, the cops came by and said he was shot."

J breathes a sigh of relief. At least Lena is okay.

"When did it happen? Last night?" J asks.

"Jesus, J! I don't know" Pope yells, slamming his hand down on the steering wheel. "I wasn't exactly working on all cylinders. Sorry I didn't play 20 questions with the cops after hearing my brother was shot."

J wants to say 'Yes, he is your brother but he's also my dad', but the look on Pope's face stops him dead in his tracks. He doesn't say another word the rest of the way to the hospital.

**XXXXX**

It turns out that Pope is not the only one who doesn't know much about what's going on. They've been sitting in the surgery waiting room for hours and still know next to nothing about Baz' condition. When they first got there a couple of hours ago, all they were told was that Baz was in critical condition and was in surgery. They haven't heard anything else since then and that was four hours ago.

"Have you gotten ahold of Craig yet?" Pope asks for what feels like the thousandth time in the last hour.

"Not yet," Deran answers shaking his head

"Keep trying!" Pope orders in a booming voice.

"I am!" Deran defends himself. "I've texted him and called him like 50 times what else do you want me to do? Drive down to Mexico?"

"If he's on his way to Mexico I bet the reception is pretty crappy. That's probably why Craig's not picking up," Nicky says in a poor attempt to diffuse the situation.

"Why are you talking?" Pope says shooting Nicky a cold glare.

"I was just trying to help," Nicky says meekly.

"Well, don't." Pope bites back.

J squeezes Nicky's knee. Silently telling her to stop. Don't take it personally. It's just Pope being Pope.

"Excuse me?" A woman wearing a pair of scrubs asks. Her badge says her name is Lauren Phillips.

"Yeah?" Pope barks.

Deran shoots his brother a look.

"Are you here for Barry Blackwell?"

"We are," Deran says standing up first, the rest of them follow his lead. "We're family. Brothers. And son." Deran explains as he points to the appropriate person.

"Is he alive?" Pope asks.

"He is," Dr. Phillips begins. "But he is still extremely critical. He came into the ER early this morning with four gun shot wounds. Two to the chest. One to the subclavian artery and another to his knee. His injuries are serious. A lot of blood loss, a collapsed lung, and his knee was completely shattered."

"Jesus," Deran curses under his breath.

"It took awhile to repair the damage, but we were able to. But his body is extremely weak. The next 48 hours are going to be extremely critical. If he survives the next forty-eight hours and barring any complications, then I believe that he will make a full recovery. Then we can begin discussing the next steps regarding Mr. Blackwell's knee."

"Can we see him?" Pope asks.

The physician shakes her head. "Not right now. He's still in recovery and his vitals are extremely unstable. I can't let him have any visitors until his blood pressure peaks up a bit. As soon as his vitals improve to my liking, I can let one of you go in at a time for ten minutes max. Any more questions before I get back and get your brother settled into the ICU?"

They all shake their heads and the doctor leaves. They sit back down again.

"This sucks. I can't believe this," Deran says leaning his head back against the wall. They all fall into a comfortable silence. That is until J's phone goes off.

"What is that?" Pope asks.

"It's 3:30," J says as he looks dazedly into his phone.

"So?" Nicky asks with a shrug

"School's almost out," J whispers quietly to himself as he stands up. "I have to go."

"Where are you going?" Pope asks. "Your father is in the ICU fighting for his life and you're just going to leave?"

"It's almost four," J answers as if that should explain everything away.

"Yeah you said that already," Deran says. "So?"

"School's almost out. Someone has to pick up Lena. Someone has to tell Lena about…"

Her dad being shot and clinging to life.

"Someone has to tell her that Baz is hurt," J finishes.

"Shit," Deran replies. "You're right."

"I'll do it," J says.

"I can come with you," Nicky says standing up.

J shakes his head. No way is Nicky coming with him. Lena is still not a fan of Nicky and has made it known that she isn't too happy that J and Nicky are back together. She doesn't get how J can take Nicky back after she was with Craig. J's still unsure himself on how they got back together. And he hasn't had much luck explaining it to Lena.

"It's okay I should do this alone. If you want. I can drop you back off at the house on my way to pick her up," J says.

Nicky nods. "Okay, let me know if you need anything."

Deran promises that he'll text with any news. J wraps his arm around Nicky's shoulders as they make their way out of the waiting room. He can feel Pope's eyes on him the whole time.

**XXXXX**

"Thanks for the icecream," Lena says spooning some into her mouth.

"You're welcome," J says. He takes a few seconds before he continues. "Lena, your dad got hurt. He's in the hospital."

"Is he going to come home soon?"

J shrugs. " I don't know. Hopefully. The doctors don't really know. But he may be there for a while."

That's if he makes it. Four bullet wounds is a lot to come back from.

"Am I gonna have to move?"

"What?" J asks slightly confused. He thought for sure that Lena would be asking more questions about what happened to Baz. He didn't think that Lena's next questions after hearing that her father is in the hospital, would be about moving. Then again Lena is six. The mind of a six year old does work in mysterious ways.

Lena begins to swing her legs. "I like my room at my house. I can hear the ocean."

"You can stay," J answers.

"By myself? If Daddy is in the hospital who is gonna stay with me?"

"I'll stay with you," J says and he feels a little lighter. A little less tense when Lena gives him a small smile.

Lena has wanted him to move in with her and Baz for almost a year. Ever since it came out that they're siblings. And despite how many times J has tried to explain to her that being siblings doesn't mean that they have to live together, Lena still doesn't get why he still lives at Smurf's place. That it's not like J's mom and Baz are divorced and he's living with his mom. She can't understand why he's living with Smurf while his dad is alive.

"Can you make me banana pancakes tomorrow for breakfast?" Lena asks.

J nods. "Sure. If you want me to."

Lena nods. "You cook a lot better than Daddy does. He burns my pop tarts. When can we go see Daddy?"

"I don't know, Lena." J says caught off guard by how fast Lena's mind changes topics. Baz' condition is bad. Real bad. A collapsed lung. Nicked artery. He's hanging on right now but that can all change. But how do you tell that to a six year old?

"He's hurt pretty bad. It may be awhile before you can visit," J explains keeping things simple.

Lena frowns. "You'll pick me up from school though, right? I don't like taking the bus."

Now it's j's turn to frown. "That kid Aiden giving you trouble?"

Aiden's one of the handful of kids who have been giving Lena a hard time at school. Coming home crying. Baz and J hasn't been successful in getting Lena to tell them what the kid was saying, but Lena seemed to be doing better lately.

"He moved. I just don't like the bus. It smells funny." Lena says wrinkling up her nose.

J nods. Relieved that at least there's one thing he won't have to worry about. He has his plate fill right now with Baz being shot, Smurf in jail, and taking care of Lena. The last thing he needs is to deal with a shit head first grader. "Crystal might have to drop you off at school because I have to get to school before you do, but I'll pick you up."

"Promise?" Lena asks with sad eyes, biting her lip. "Promise you'll be there?"

They may be talking about school pick up but J thinks there's more behind the promise. The kid has had too many promises broken in her short life; he'll be damned if he's the reason behind another one. He holds out his pinky. "Pinky swear."

She wraps hers firmly around his. "Pinky swear."

Once the pinky swear is cemented, J stands up. He shoots Nicky and his uncles a text saying that he and Lena will be staying at Baz' place so someone needs to go over there and clean the place up. The last thing Lena needs to see is the driveway painted with her father's blood. "Come on, we have to go shopping. Last time I looked in your fridge all you had was some apple juice and like two eggs."

"Can we get some chocolate syrup to make chocolate milk?" Lena asks grabbing J's hand. "And some Lucky Charms."

J squeezes Lena's hand. "Fine, but we have to get some vegetables too. You can't eat only sugar the whole time I'm staying with you or your teeth are gonna fall out."

"Will nottttt," Lena says as they make their way to J's truck.

He's probably going to hear shit from Pope later. About him not being in the hospital. But Baz can't have visitors yet . And what good would sitting there in the waiting room do? At least when he's with Lena she feels like he's doing something. He's taking care of her and he thinks that's something Baz will want.


End file.
